Month: June 2015

Before Zev was born and just after I left Microsoft, Michelle and I loaded up two backpacks, rented out our house and vagabonded around Europe for three months. We didn’t have an itinerary, only a vague sense of wanting...

We mentioned to a British tourist in Lagos that we were heading to Amsterdam, and he said he loved it: he’d visited once with his family, and once with a bachelor party. Two very different experiences. Well, I can’t speak...

Zev and I paused for a game at this XXL-sized chess set next to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. We waited our turn in the hot sun, quietly kibitzing as two Dutch tourists finished up their ponderous play. Just as we were...

Zev is a boy. He doesn’t cleave to all the gender stereotypes (he loves to dance, is emotionally articulate), but he does like war. He likes to play war, he likes to learn about war, he likes to talk...

We stumbled on a bit of “silent disco” exploring the Joordan in Amsterdam today: a group of people dancing in virtual silence, all sharing the same beats via headphone. Needless to say, we scooped up a couple pairs of...

Holland, I’m in love. Friday, we met up with our friend Laurie, hopped on our bikes and pedaled across Amsterdam, onto the (free!) ferry to Amsterdam-Noord, and then on out to the Dutch countryside of Waterland. Jaw-dropping, simple beauty....

We were a little spooked by Lagos, honestly. With its tangle of identical looking cobbled streets filled with identical looking “touristic” restaurants, its bland town beach filled with selfie-shooting European girls and lizard-tanned British retirees, it felt like tourist...